RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • Japan: Cherry blossom festival cancelled over badly behaved tourists

    Source: BBC News [UK state media]

    “Japanese authorities in a town near Mount Fuji have cancelled this year’s cherry blossom festival, saying a surge in tourist numbers is unmanageable for locals. The influx of tourists to the town of Fujiyoshida has led to chronic traffic congestion and litter, while some residents say they’ve experienced tourists trespassing or defecating in private gardens. The area is a popular destination during spring because Japan’s world-renowned cherry trees are in full bloom, and can be admired with Mount Fuji in the background. But Fujiyoshida’s picturesque scenery threatens ‘the quiet lives of citizens,’ the city’s mayor explained, adding: ‘We have a strong sense of crisis.'” (02/05/26)

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wzrlndzjro


  • The Epstein Files and Elite Moral Collapse

    Source: Persuasion
    by Pratap B Mehta

    “There are, of course, outstanding issues in the Epstein files that need to be addressed — people who committed crimes in legal terms, people who engaged in morally reprehensible behavior, and people who themselves are not individually guilty but who condoned what was happening. The Epstein files are not about individual guilt or innocence; they are about the nature of collective power. And when, within that collectivity, elites abused sexual, financial, legal, political, and even intellectual power without shame and with impunity, one has to wonder whether the Roman historians were onto something: They envisioned empires collapsing when elites could no longer restrain themselves in any aspect of their lives. An elite so needy, greedy, and now so vulnerable can hardly be trusted to exercise good judgment.” (02/05/26)

    https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-epstein-files-indict-an-entire

  • Was Trump Correct about Tariffs?

    Source: Independent Institute
    by Allen Gindler

    “Trump’s recent Wall Street Journal piece is not just a defense of tariffs. It is a claim of intellectual discovery in economics. He argues, in effect, that the vast majority of experts have been looking at tariffs backward, and that his critics keep repeating a superstition: tariffs are a tax on Americans. In his telling, tariffs are a way to make foreigners pay, raise revenue, boost domestic production, and still keep inflation tame. If Trump remains fixated on the Nobel Peace Prize, he is aiming at the wrong category. His real ambition, at least on the page, is the science of economics. Even though he did not explicitly state his discoveries, we can infer the economic laws he implied and name them in his honor.” (02/05/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/05/was-trump-correct-tariffs/

  • Should Soldiers Obey Orders to Commit Crimes?

    Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
    by Jacob G Hornberger

    “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s attacks against U.S. Senator Mark Kelly constitute a fascinating and very revealing insight into the national-security-state way of life. Hegseth is upset with Kelly, along with five other members of Congress, for participating in a video that reminded U.S. soldiers of their duty to refuse to obey illegal orders. … Kelly and the others did not say to U.S. soldiers: ‘You have the right to disobey orders.’ If he had said that, I could easily understand why Hegseth would be upset. But that’s not what they said. They said that U.S. soldiers have the right — and the duty — to refuse to obey illegal orders. The difference between those two admonitions is day and night. What Kelly and the others stated is the absolute truth.” (02/05/26)

    https://www.fff.org/2026/02/05/should-soldiers-obey-orders-to-commit-crimes/

  • What’s behind the wild new wealth tax proposals?

    Source: Orange County Register
    by Veronique de Rugy

    “When government grows to dominate ever-larger shares of the economy, and when politicians refuse to be responsible about what they spend, there’s a predictable next move: Insist that the problem is ‘the rich’ not paying enough. Never mind that high earners already shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden. Never mind that relying on a small and mobile group of people for the bulk of your revenue makes public finances more volatile, not more stable. No, once spending is treated as untouchable and restraint as politically impossible, it’s only a matter of time before politics demands more, more, more. More taxes and more distortion. This helps explain why wild new forms of wealth taxes are popping up.” (02/05/26)

    https://archive.is/g1BKq

  • In Politics, the Celebrations Start Early and the Excuses Never End

    Source: Garrison Center
    by Thomas L Knapp

    “Yes, the party in power historically tends to lose congressional seats in midterm elections. Sometimes a few, sometimes more. Beyond that obvious likelihood, trying to predict the mood of the electorate nine months out is a fool’s errand. I can, however, confidently predict how much will change as a direct result of the elections’ outcomes, whatever those outcomes may be: Not much.” (02/05/26)

    https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20361

  • The Lessons of Kent State

    Source: Mother Jones
    by Lawrence Roberts

    “The basic facts of the tragedy at Kent State University are well-known. Shortly after noon on May 4, 1970, twenty-eight soldiers kneeled on a grassy knoll and fired more than sixty rounds in thirteen seconds into a crowd of students, most of whom were there to protest the expansion of the Vietnam war. They killed four and wounded nine, including [Thomas] Grace, a sophomore history major who was shot through his left heel. The circumstances back then, of course, differed substantially from the deadly recent events in Minneapolis. Yet for those of us who came of age in that era, for whom the Ohio tragedy is seared into our memories as a critical turning point during a time of national crisis, the striking parallels are impossible to ignore …” (02/05/26)

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/the-lessons-of-kent-state/

  • Trump’s 2020 Election Obsession Enters New Phase

    Source: Washington Monthly
    by James D Zirin

    “The president’s denial that he lost to Joe Biden now turns to a Tulsi Gabbard-led fishing expedition. What could go wrong?” (02/05/26)

    https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/02/05/trumps-2020-election-obsession-enters-new-phase/

  • ICE’s Private Prison Contractors Spent Millions Lobbying to Force Banks to Give Them Loans

    Source: The Intercept
    by Biplob Kumar Das
    Support Us

    “Some of the largest banks in the nation for years have eschewed the business of private prison giants like GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two firms that operate more than half the private carceral facilities in the country, including many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. … Now, the private prison firms are fighting back, spending millions on lobbying Congress to pass a law to require that the banks can’t deny their business.” (02/05/26)

    https://theintercept.com/2026/02/05/private-prison-corecivic-geo-group-ice-bank-loan/

  • Europe’s future pivots on a Hungarian election

    Source: Christian Science Monitor
    by staff

    “A recent rise in anti-corruption movements in Europe has upended politics from Serbia to Bulgaria to Romania. Now, one of the continent’s most entrenched leaders, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary, faces a serious challenge this April in a parliamentary election that could be determined by what one commentator calls a public ‘yearning for integrity’. For the European Union, too, the stakes in the election are high. Mr. Orbán and his ruling populist conservative party, Fidesz, have often obstructed the 27-member bloc in helping Ukraine and countering Russia. The EU has also held back funds for Budapest over its shrinking rule of law. After nearly 16 years in power, Mr. Orbán has left Hungary with the lowest household living standards in the EU. The country of 9.6 million people has experienced three years of economic stagnation.” (02/03/25)

    https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0203/Europe-s-future-pivots-on-a-Hungarian-election

  • How to evaluate state pro-housing policies: Mind the empirical pitfalls

    Source: Niskanen Center
    by Jenny Schuetz

    “State and local policymakers urgently need to know how well pro-housing policies are achieving their underlying goals. Have they resulted in higher quantities of new construction, especially in targeted locations and structure types? Have development timelines been shortened, yielding cost savings for new homes? Are there spillover effects on the rents and prices of existing homes, or other changes in key housing market outcomes, such as vacancy rates?” (02/05/26)

    https://www.niskanencenter.org/how-to-evaluate-state-pro-housing-policies-mind-the-empirical-pitfalls/